


Scavenger Hunt

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Awesome James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Fluff and Humor, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Random & Short, The man is a gift give him a reward for dealing with Tony, Tony will be Tony, valentines day fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 08:23:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17763233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Yeah, okay, sometimes Tony finds the attention he gets annoying and okay actually no that’s not true at all he’s always loved being the center of attention. But Valentine’s Day is always the day where he can live it up in a whole new way if only for twenty four hours. The problem? This year he happens to be dating someone and Pepper’s giving him some disapproving looks so he’s pretty sure his usual plans will not fly with Rhodey.“But Pep, its the greatest scam I’ve ever concocted,” he says.





	Scavenger Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a bit of fluff so here it is, in time for Valentine's Day lol.

Yeah, okay, sometimes Tony finds the attention he gets annoying and okay actually no that’s not true at all he’s always loved being the center of attention. But Valentine’s Day is always the day where he can live it up in a whole new way if only for twenty four hours. The problem? This year he happens to be dating someone and Pepper’s giving him some disapproving looks so he’s pretty sure his usual plans will not fly with Rhodey.

“But Pep, its the greatest scam I’ve ever concocted,” he says. “Last year you got to reap the benefits,” he adds.

Pepper gives him a  _look_. “Tony. You can’t just  _go on dates_  with people when you’re dating someone. Unless he’s okay with that and I happen to know he is not.”

“Would be if the person I went on a date with was Sam and I invited him,” he mumbles. Fucking Sam Wilson, his competitor for Rhodey’s affections for almost a year and  _hello_ , Tony’s both cute  _and_  interested. There was no need to be snubbed like that when Sam didn’t even know Rhodey existed. That was just rudeness.

“Are you inviting him on a date with Sam?” Pepper asks and he sighs. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

“But Quill offered food, and Bucky always gets into really weird situations like being robbed by raccoons and stuff and those are fun stories, and Clint... I can raid his candy stash, I know where it is. Point is, there are things to be gained from this,” he says. 

“Yeah, like a date with your  _actual_  significant other,” Pepper tells him.

“ _Food,_  Pepper,” Tony says meaningfully.

“With Rhodey,” she tells him.

“You suck the fun out of everything,” he mumbles.

*

Rhodey raises an eyebrow and he doesn’t look impressed and Tony gets that, really, but this is about swindling people not dates. “Rhodey, I get  _bears_ ,” he says. He’s got a whole fleet of them, collected since people started giving them to him when he was in seventh grade. There’s a lot of bears and they’re all very cute.

“You’re about to get a smack,” Rhodey warns him even though he wouldn’t ever do something like that. Rhodey’s harmless. Okay he wants to joint he military, which,  _boo_ , but still. He’s  _currently_  harmless.

“There are so many presents and all I have to do is act interested for a day,” he says. “Sometimes not even that long.”

“Are you seriously trying to talk me into letting you screw people over for some bears and chocolates?” he asks. “Because that’s so below your pay grade.”

Interesting argument. “Its not the money spent, its the attention I like,” he says.

Rhodey sighs, “man, you are lucky I like you because you are a total dick,” he says, hands on his hips.

“Aw, don’t be like that platypus. I just like chocolates, and bears, and dates. And attention,” he adds somewhat late even if that’s his primary motivator for mostly everything.

*

Natasha sits behind her desk, light hanging above her and she knows she looks like she’s the femme fatal in a film noir but that’s how she likes it. “Rhodes,” she says, tone aloof.

Rhodey rolls his eyes at her. “I know its you who posts all the memes to the school’s blog stop pretending like you’re some kind of like... action movie villain,” he says, not even getting the damn genre right. Offensive, seriously.

She leans forward in her chair, eyes narrowing. “What do you want?” she asks. “And what are you prepared to do to get it?”

It earns her another eye roll and that’s rude, she’s putting  _effort_  into this image okay. He should show some respect. “I happen to know you have a crush on Pepper and I could maybe swing you a date. Just tell me how the hell to deal with Tony on Valentine’s Day,” he tells her.

She snorts, “lost cause, find someone else.”

“Oh, and here I thought you were the best of the best. Guess I’ll go to Sam...” he says and Natasha lets out a soft huff.

Sam god damn Wilson. Her sworn enemy, master of petty revenge. He’s good, but he’s so not stealing her business. “What exactly did you have in mind?” she asks grudgingly.

*

Tony wakes up, resenting the earth and everything on it when he notices the rose. He almost dismisses it out of sheer annoyance that he’s been forced into waking up this early by the bullshit education system that can suck an  _owl_  but the note sitting on the Stem catches his eye. He blinks a few more times, attempting to wake himself up before reaching out to the note.

The writing on it is Rhodey’s, which doesn’t surprise him any but the little note inside telling him to go to where they first met does. Easy enough instructions so he pulls himself out of bed, grabs his back pack, and follows the clue. They met on a playground that shouldn’t be populated with children for another hour so he’s got time to get there before someone else inevitably finds whatever Rhodey has left for him there.

He manages to avoid the children, narrowly, thanks to some delays getting to where he needed to be but he finds the small stuffed bear dressed as Wonder Woman anyways and he grins, snatching it and running off before the bus load of kids manages to snatch it first. Yeah, kids are great and all that but they can get bears from somewhere else. Also, he’s always loved Wonder Woman and Rhodey is one of three people who knows that. He plucks the note off the bear and reads it as he sticks the bear in his bag for safe keeping. Next stop, their first kiss. Also easy.

The arcade has been closed forever, but Tony finds the note and the chocolates easily enough. Next up, their first date. Honestly, Rhodey could have made the clues harder but he’s made up for it in cuteness so Tony accepts it and moves off to school, which is kind of clever on Rhodey’s behalf anyway. He needs to get to school by the time he’s through with this so sending him there in the midst of the scavenger hunt makes sense.

He doesn’t expect to find  _Rhodey_  on the bleachers but he takes it, bounding up them and plopping himself in Rhodey’s lap. “I love the bear,” he says excitedly.

Rhodey wraps his arms around Tony’s waist and grins, “you better appreciate this, it was a mad dash putting it all together,” he says and Tony laughs.

“Natasha helped, didn’t she?” he asks and Rhodey makes a face.

“Nope,” he lies and Tony laughs again.

“Did so. This is the wholesome version of the plot to Gone Girl. Got to say that I’m happy she cut out the bits where you frame me for your death and then plan your suicide to ensure I’ll go to jail and also kill Neil Patrick Harris because I cheated on you. Seems like all that would have been a downer, especially since I haven’t cheated on you. And also, you’re not pregnant. I mean neither was Amy but still, you get the-” he starts but Rhodey cuts him off.

“What the fuck plot did you just throw at me?  _That’s_  where Natasha got the idea of a cutsey scavenger hunt?” he asks, horrified. But he’s admitted to his folly so  _ha_!

Tony shrugs, “yeah, it was their anniversary tradition to do a scavenger hunt. Guess she stole the idea but without all the thriller stuff,” he says.

Rhodey shakes his head, “I’m never going to her for advice again,” he mumbles. “Thought that first kiss one would have kept you longer than it did though.”

He raises an eyebrow, “please, how could I forget your awkward attempts at a kiss?” he asks. They were thirteen, just about to go into high school and had no idea what that’d mean for them. Well, for Tony it’d mean dumbing himself down enough that he doesn’t get jettisoned into college without Rhodey, but for Rhodey they had no clue. Aside from knowing he’d excel in math and science they were at a loss. So they did what they always did when stressed- they went to the arcade to blow off some steam and probably stayed there too long. They’d been about to go home, sitting in the parking lot waiting for Rhodey’s mom to come pick them up when Rhodey had kissed him. It was awkward, and weird, but not that bad all things considered.

“Give me a break, it was my first try at kissing someone,” he says, a light blush hitting his cheeks.

“Mine too, but my attempts did not involve clicking teeth,” he says. Poor Rhodey had been embarrassed when he’d pulled away but Tony had pulled him back because  _someone_  needed to teach his helpless ass how to kiss. Granted he didn’t have much practice. Or any, but he still thinks his attempts were better than Rhodey’s.

Rhodey looks surprised though. “That was your first kiss?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“Yeah. Didn’t you know that?” he asks, frowning. He thought he told Rhodey that but maybe he didn’t. He’d been  _there_ , it makes sense as to why he wouldn’t have said anything.

“No. I um. Thought you’d kissed a lot of people at that point,” he admits softly.

Yeah, he’s not the first person to buy into his reputation and its not even a well earned one. “Nope, just you until almost a year later,” he says and Rhodey looks like he’s told him the secret to life. “You’re the first person I slept with too,” he adds and Rhodey shakes his head.

“That can’t be tru,” he says and Tony wrinkles his nose.

“Well, first guy,” he amends, “Hope was the first ever technically.” It was awkward and kind of bad and they decided maybe they weren’t compatible after all. Granted that’d been a long time coming but their sorry attempts at sex sort of... solidified that. Now she’s with her weird cheerleader boyfriend and Scott... has a case of Chronic Dumbass and a rumored kid named Cassie but they seem good together.

“ _Hope_?” Rhodey asks because they’ve all heard the rumors.

Tony shrugs, “yup. Not Sunset, or Tiberius, or half the school like both of them claimed. Hope. And it sucked. No offense to Hope.” He’s pretty sure that was a mutual feeling though so he doesn’t feel bad saying it. They really shouldn’t have messed with a good thing, trying to force romance on their poor friendship. Rhodey had been much better, if experimental.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of that?” Rhodey asks, baffled.

He sighs, “I thought spreading more rumors about the stupid rumors Sunset and Ty spread would make the whole thing look as stupid and ridiculous as I thought it was but uh. I think I made it worse. Like a  _lot_  worse. By then I just kind of accepted it.” He’s always liked the attention anyway, even if he’s not really all that comfortable with his reputation. But its easy to get a reputation and hard to lose it.

Rhodey’s arms tighten around his waist, “Ty and Sunset are assholes. Also, this solidifies my believe that if a white girl has a hippie name she’s not to be trusted. I met a Moonstone once and she was  _wild_.” Poor thing looks traumatized too, which Tony shouldn’t laugh at but he totally does.

*

He’s pulling his stuff from his locker and he has to hand it to Rhodey, the balloons were adorable, when Rhodey hands him flowers too. “Aw, I thought I only got the one rose. Thanks!” he says, sniffing at them.

“Those were from _me_!” someone else says and Tony looks over to find  _Justin Hammer_  standing there and oh, not even in Tony’s worst  _nightmares_. 

“Oh my  _god_ , don’t be disgusting. I know you have a habit of taking credit for other people’s work but leave Rhodey out of it,” he says, wrinkling his nose and turning to Rhodey. “Thanks for the flowers,” he says happily.

Rhodey grins, “I think this just goes to show that I’m all the attention you need,” he says and Tony laughs.

“Okay, I underestimated you. Your efforts are noted and extravagant. You doing anything after school?” he asks.

“Obviously not, I’ll be with you,” he points out and Tony grins.

“Great!” he says, walking away before he does something dumb like tell Rhodey what his present is.

*

Tony doesn’t expect to find a bunch of little gifts all day but he has to hand it to Rhodey, he really did go all out. Which kind of makes him nervous because he only got Rhodey one thing and  _sure_  its kind of a big thing but still. Rhodey put a lot of effort into this and he half assed it.

“I’m sure whatever you got was fine,” Rhodey tells him, sensing his nervousness.

“How do you know I got you anything?” he asks, nose in the air.

Rhodey snorts, “you might be a dickhole who tries to swindle bears out of people on Valentine’s Day but I know you got something for me,” he says.

Tony lets out a huff, “to be fair if I swindled those bears this would have cost you less,” he points out. Rhodey’s on a budget, he isn’t.

“I uh, actually had a few things already so I just integrated them into Natasha’s thriller without the thrills idea,” he says. “Which you were right about by the way, I asked.”

Yeah, he knows he was right. “Told you,” he says, pulling Rhodey up the stairs to his room. Rhodey follows along ruefully, letting Tony pull him into his space. “Stay here,” he tells Rhodey before running off to his closet to get his present.

‘If its you naked, I’ve already seen that,” Rhodey calls to him and Tony lets out a laugh.

“That’s not it. Well, right away,” he amends, pulling what he needs and running back out to Rhodey. “Here,” he says, handing over the papers.

Rhodey frowns at them for a moment, confused. Then he starts reading and his eyes grow wide. “Is this real?” he asks, sparing a brief glance to Tony before looking back at the papers.

“Obviously, Rhodey,” he says, rolling his eyes.

He doesn’t expect Rhodey to let out a loud yell before he starts jumping around in excitement but he’ll take it. “You are the  _best_!” Rhodey yells, all but slamming into him, arms curling around his waist tightly as he lifts him up and spins around.

Tony lets out a soft huff, “its just flying lessons, Rhodey. You kind of out did me,” he says.

Rhodey looks at him like he’s nuts. “I got you some trinkets, you fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine,” he says, gratitude high on his features.

“Well, you’ve had an obsession with airplanes since forever,” he murmurs, shrugging. “Seemed like a logical gift.”

Rhodey pulls him into a kiss that’s almost as awkward as their first. “You  _know_  how much I’ve always wanted to fly.  _Thank_  you,” he says softly, kissing him again. Thankfully this time its not as rushed.

*

Rhodey is still vibrating with excitement the next day and Tony shakes his head. He didn’t think he’d like the lessons  _that_  much but he’ll take it. Rhodey’s going on about stuff that Tony has a vague knowledge of, airplane stuff mostly because Rhodey has done  _research_  when Sam walks up.

“You two are aware that on occasion I mess with people to amuse myself, right?” he asks and Rhodey frowns. Tony’s pretty sure he’s got the same look on his face.

“Um. Yeah?” Tony asks more than states when it becomes clear Sam is expecting an answer.

Sam nods. “My greatest long con is you two idiots. This absolute  _dumbass_ ,” Sam gestures to Rhodey, “decided that of all the people he would take and interest in he chose  _me_  despite the fact that he is obviously in love with  _you_ ,” he says to Tony. “But you didn’t see it until he decided he liked me so I thought ‘hm, what can I do to make these idiots realize they’re meant for each other?’ So I acted cool and aloof- took a few notes from my neighbors cat but your  _stupid_  ass took that as me playing hard to get. Meanwhile Tony was practically  _waving_ his arms around to get your attention but did you notice? Nope. This went on for so long I thought I’d  _die_  before you two got together. But then I thought, what if I show an interest? Not showing an interest wasn’t doing anything, might as well try something new. Low and behold I have one  _single_ conversation with you and boom. You were dating Tony by the end of the week. So you’re welcome,” he says, walking off with that.

Rhodey turns to him, “what the hell just happened?” he asks.

Tony frowns, eyes trained on Sam as he weaves his way through the students. “Um. I think Sam played us both for a year and decided to tell us about it in the worlds strangest power move. I didn’t get the ‘weird flex, but okay’ meme until literally right now.”

“Great. Think he can play Pepper into a date with Natasha because that’s the price I paid for her help and I don’t know how to convince a straight woman to go on a date with the world’s most aggressive bisexual.”

Tony squints, “your gaydar is broken, Pepper’s one hundred percent not into dudes. But she’s weirdly obtuse about it. Tell her Natasha needs help in a business class and send them to a restaurant. Problem solved!” he says.

Rhodey looks skeptical, “you’re terrible at this. I love you but you have no idea how to give advice,” he says.

“Got any better options?” he asks and Rhodey sighs. “That’s what I thought. Face it platypus, without my bad advice to keep you afloat you’d die.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


End file.
